


A Cup of Hot Chocolate

by Adex



Category: His Dark Materials (TV), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bittersweet Ending, Everybody Lives, First Dates, Fluff and Angst, Handholding, Handholding does not have a tag but it should, Hot Chocolate, I'm sorry Sayan, M/M, Prompt: Hot Chocolate, Prompt: John Parry/Lee Scoresby - Hot Chocolate, Sayan still has no lines, The Ashmolean Museum, Will's World (His Dark Materials)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28903050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adex/pseuds/Adex
Summary: Lee didn't know what he wanted with Jopari until he did.Prompt: John Parry/Lee Scoresby - Hot ChocolateWritten for the HDM Holiday Gift Exchange for the lovely Glove23!
Relationships: John Parry/Lee Scoresby
Comments: 10
Kudos: 35
Collections: John Parry and Lee Scoresby





	A Cup of Hot Chocolate

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Glove23](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glove23/gifts).



> Thank you to Glove23 for providing this prompt! It was originally going to be a modern!AU with a 5+1 format, featuring Jopari and Lee trying their hardest to be good fathers, but I started writing a little late and soon realised that I wouldn't be able to have this done in time for the gift exchange deadline. No matter, though! I hope this little oneshot and its meandering tone is enough to suffice.
> 
> -Adex
> 
> PS If it wasn't clear, this is an Everybody Lives/Nobody Dies AU.

The chocolatl of Lee Scoresby's world is bitter. It's an acquired taste, a delicacy among the upper classes, and Lee hates it. He once ferried a shipment of Cacao from High Brasil to Muscovy and the crate stunk to high heaven. Hester hadn't like it that much either and she'd tried to get as far away from it as possible, which was hard to do in a balloon basket the size of a thimble. Yeah, chocolatl can go on the lists of Lee Scoresby's least favourite things, just below backache and right above ear popping. The 'hot chocolate' of Jopari's world, however... That was yet to be decided.

Surprisingly enough, few remarked on a man sitting in a café with an arctic hare stuffed down his jacket in the middle of Jopari's Oxford. Lee supposed it was because of the people; university folk are odd ducks. In all honesty, he was still trying to get his head around seeing people with no dæmon. How hard must it be to walk around without a friend wherever you went, without someone who understood you to your deepest core at your side?

'Here you go, Mr Scoresby,' Jopari said from the café doorway. He'd just come back from inside with two steaming mugs and saucers. He set one down for each of them before sitting. 'I ordered some marshmallows to go with yours.'

'Marshmallows?' Lee asked, peering suspiciously into the pristine mug. The drink seemed to be covered by a layer of pink and white goop. Cautiously, he picked up the little teaspoon sitting on his saucer and dipped it in the mess - sorry, the 'marshmallows' - and stirred it around with difficulty; the hot chocolate was quite thick compared to what he'd been expecting.

'Mixture of sugar, water, air, and animal bones,' Jopari explained. Lee dropped the teaspoon in surprise and it fell in the mug with a plop. 'They're rather sweet actually,' the other man said. 'Forgive me; I thought you'd enjoy it.'

'Sure, we will,' Hester grumbled, muffled slightly by Lee's armpit. Sayan Kötor squawked a chuckle from her perch on the café roof. Eyes fixed on Jopari, Lee took a sip of his 'hot chocolate', hoping beyond hope he wouldn't get a mouthful of metal teaspoon.

Jopari was right; the marshmallows made it a tooth-rotting sweet, though the 'hot chocolate' certainly didn't need any help with that. It was as sweet as that goop and twice as rich. Better than that, it warmed him up from the inside with its spice and spidery heat. Chocolatl was never served this hot - normally, it was ice-cold and thin.

'That,' Lee Scoresby said, 'is a damn good cup of cocoa.'

'Hot chocolate,' Jopari corrected.

' _Cocoa_ , dammit.'

The other man laughed and Lee leant back in his creaky metal chair, looking toward the bustling street. Cars had been a bit of a surprise when he first arrived. They zoomed about, almost knocking into each other, only to be stopped like clockwork by some unforeseen force. Aside from the evident lack of dæmons, that was the most obvious difference from his own world. However, there were many other things too: the anbaric lights, for one. Anbaric power was so faulty and so expensive that most people in Lee's world made do with candles and fires - but this world was rolling in it. Everything and everyone used anbaric power. Lee, personally, couldn't understand how they did it without emptying their coffers and selling their first born, but maybe society was different here. Maybe you didn't have to pay anything for anbaric power.

'Penny for your thoughts?'

Lee smirked. 'You couldn't afford them.'

Jopari smiled and Lee broke out into a grin, before covering it up with his mug. It was _nice_ , being here with the other man, nicer than he expected. Jopari was weird as hell and annoying as shit but when it came down to it, he was... He was... Lee couldn't put his finger on it. Still can't. These days, he tries not to think about it too much.

'What is this, Jopari?' Lee asked quietly, watching as the remaining marshmallows disintegrated into nothingness, swallowed up by the cocoa. He caught sight of the handle of his teaspoon and fished it out before placing it on his saucer and sucking his fingers to get rid of the stickiness.

All at once, he felt a cool touch on calloused fingertips.

'This is whatever you want it to be, Mr Scoresby,' Jopari whispered.

Lee stroked the rough pads of Jopari's hand, gaze still trained on his cocoa. He took another sip. The cocoa was suddenly _too_ sweet and he set it down again, Hester huffing at his side in protest.

What _did_ he want? He wanted to be next to Jopari, to match his pace along country roads and city streets with pinkies entwined. He wanted to burrow in as close to him as he could and press his ear against his heartbeat just to make sure it was there. He wanted to see a lopsided smile lit by firelight through droopy eyes and a warm haze. He wanted his heart to strain when he was away and be content when he's close. He wanted his gaze to wander from his eyes to his mouth and to take that mouth for himself. He wanted to grasp the other man's hand and never have to let go.

Lee Scoresby stared into his cocoa.

Then, he stretched out his fingers - just a little bit - and wrapped them around cool skin.

'I want...' he began, unsure how to continue. 'Um. Uh...'

'Take your time,' Hester snarked.

'Shut up, hare.'

She huffed and jumped out o Lee's jacket and onto the floor, racing around the corner. Lee was worried before he caught sight of her a few seconds later sitting on the roof next to Sayan Kötor.

Jopari squeezed Lee's hand and stroked his thumb along his knuckles, before withdrawing. 'I should take you to the Ashmolean,' he said. 'I've missed around fourteen years of exhibits.'

'The Ashmolean?'

'A museum. I frequented it back when I was trying to study for a Bachelor's.'

'Trying?'

'Oxford University is not the kindest place for those unable to pay their tuition fees.'

'Huh.' Lee watched with feigned disinterest as Jopari stacked up the mugs and saucers and napkins that littered their cheap metal table. In his world, you wouldn't do that, not for a servant. It was one of the many reasons why Lee was so set on being his own man instead of waiting hand and foot on another. Granted, he was not the only Texas boy ever to have a dream; he just so happened to be one of the ones to get lucky.

'Shall we be off, then?' Jopari asked in his lilting tone once they were done.

They were walking along the high street, now - Lee can't remember how they got there, but he remembers being awed by the wide road. He was used to narrow, cobbled stones underfoot that jostled you about if you dared trespass on wheels - not this twenty-yard-thick expanse of manmade smooth tarmac. In the midst of it all, he barely noticed Jopari's hand grabbing his own and holding on steadfast.

'You may want to keep your eyes ahead of you,' Jopari teased. 'I'd hate to have to scrape what's left of you off a lampost.' Lee swatted at him with his free hand in response while Hester jeered from his feet.

It seemed like they reached the Ashmolean in all to short a time.

'All I'm saying, Mr Jopari, is that I don't believe that a whole town don't notice no volcano exploding.'

'You'd be surprised, Mr Scoresby.'

'Yeah, right. It was a - a cover-up! Or a miracle, or something. You don't see no black cloud hangin' over your city and think "Oh, better stay where I am! No need to go running out for no boats!"'

'Nobody knew about it until the day of.'

' _Bullshit_.'

By now, they were standing hand-in-hand next to an imposing pillar while Hester and Sayan Kötor served around the various sculptures and trees in the museum's courtyard. The two dæmons chased each other about weaving back and forth and back and forth before Hester had the bright idea to hide beneath a bench where no osprey could reach.

Lee tightened his hold on Jopari's hand. 'You know, earlier, when you asked about what I want?' he murmured.

'Have you figured it out?'

'I want... I want this to go on. I want to hold your hand and - and be near you, and go walk with you, and so on. Everything a man does with a woman when he's in love with her.'

Jopari smiled. 'I think I want that too.'

So that's what they did on that day in Jopari's Oxford. And, at the end, when night had fallen and the museum had closed, they went to a 'supermarket', since Lee had asked about how you make cocoa while tracing carvings of gods through reinforced glass.

He still has a little tin of Cadbury's finest, tucked underneath a small pile of furs in his balloon. Lee only wishes he had someone other than Hester to share it with.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for making it all the way to the end! If you like the way I write Parsby (I have, regrettably, given up my one-person campaign to make Shamanought the new shipname), then I wrote another oneshot called [Warmth](https://www.archiveofourown.org/works/27071572/) if you wish to take a little look at that.
> 
> Kudos and comments are love and make my day brighter every time I see the notification e-mail.
> 
> -Adex


End file.
